The old way of distributing products in large distribution packages, followed by repacking of the products behind the store counter in paper bags, or the like, in the amount as bought by the consumer, has almost completely disappeared. Decades ago the wide spread of the large self service stores, with pre-packed products stored on shelves, from which the consumers themselves pick the products, lead to great developments in the packaging industry.
Today almost all consumer products are packed at the manufacturing or processing site, distributed, sold, and often also stored in the consumers' home, in one and the same package. One popular kind of package used for almost all kind of products is a box made of paperboard. Paperboard boxes are, e.g., widely used for dry food products and for small commodity items such as screws and nails. By providing an inner bag the paperboard box may also be used for liquids or for powder products, such as cocoa and dry milk. The paperboard box may also be made liquid tight by laminating the paperboard with a plastic material.
The paperboard box is also often used as an outer packaging, such as the outer box housing the foil-covered paper plate of microwavable heat-and-eat meals and the outer box housing perfume bottles or the like.
Other kinds of consumer packages are plastic bottles, glass bottles, plastic boxes, metal cans, glass jars, etc.
Common for all kinds of consumer packages is that they contain a consumer adapted volumes or amounts of the product in question. This gives that the volume of each of the consumer packages is relatively small compared to the total volume sold by each store and even smaller compared to the total volume distributed to a number of stores in the same distribution area. It is not practical for the store or distribution personnel to handle every single consumer package one by one. This is one major reason for the wide spread use of distribution packages housing several consumer packages.
One commonly used distribution package is a corrugated cardboard box enclosing the consumer packages. The corrugated cardboard is usually folded to form an open ended box, filled with the consumer packages and closed by gluing together two or more flaps. In automatic processes it is also common to gather several consumer packages side by side and then the corrugated cardboard box is formed by basically wrapping the cardboard about the consumer packages and finally close it by gluing together one or more flaps. Cardboard boxes are usually opened by either cutting the cardboard using a knife, tearing the glued flaps open by hand, or tearing the cardboard along perforations by hand. Using a knife introduces the risk of personnel injuries or damages to the consumer packages. In order to avoid handling the consumer packages one by one, it is often also desirable to be able to keep a part of the distribution package as a bottom tray or the like, making it possible to put several consumer packages onto the shelf in one heave. Such a package is usually designed to be opened by a tearing action. However, the cardboard box is often torn apart instead of simply torn open, when the store personnel tears the glued flap open or tears the cardboard along any perforation. This is not satisfactory since it will give an impression of low quality reflecting negatively on the product and the store. Since the tray usually need to be provided with a rim, i.e. a lower portion of the side walls need to be left, in order to provide the necessary stability, it is difficult to open such a distribution package using a knife without damaging the consumer packages. The cardboard box may alternatively be closed using interlocking flaps. However, it is often hard to accomplish an automatic closing of such a box. Moreover, the flaps often need to be removed by a tearing or cutting action when the box is to be put on the store shelf. Thus, this kind of box is also associated with problems relating to tearing or cutting of the cardboard as discussed above.
A simple and cheap way of providing a distribution package is to plastic film wrapping several consumer packages. This requires however often that the consumer packages as such are relatively form stable. When the consumer packages are to be put on the store shelves, the store personnel cuts the film wrapping open, using a knife, and put the consumer packages one by one on the shelf. The use of a knife introduces the risk of personnel injuries or damages to the consumer packages. Moreover, the store personnel still has to handle the consumer packages one by one. By putting the consumer packages on a tray and then film wrap the tray together with the consumer packages, this one by one handling may be avoid. This kind of distribution package is often used for metal cans, plastic bottles and plastic tubes distributed standing up on the tray. However, the film wrapping still has to be cut open.
Consumer packages and distribution packages have been used wide spread for several decades within almost every line of business but, as has been discussed above, the different kind of distribution packages are all associated with different problems.
It is well known in the art that polymer chains can be broken by the application of a voltage. This is for example discussed in a review article by G. S. Shapoval (Cathodic initiation of reactions of macromolecule formation and degradation, Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry, Volume 30, Number 6, November 1994).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,308 B2 discloses a material for use in the airplane industry. As is evident from the published patent, the material has been developed under the supervision of the U.S. Department of the Air Force. The material is developed for use as coatings and adhesives. It is further elaborated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,308 that the adhesive bonds and polymeric coatings are commonly used in the assembly and finishing of manufactured goods. It is stated that adhesive bonds are used in place of mechanical fasteners, such as screw, bolts and rivets, to provide bonds with reduced machining costs and greater adaptability in the manufacturing process. It is further discussed that adhesive bonds distribute stresses evenly, reduce the possibility of fatigue, and seal the joints from corrosive species. It further asserts that, similarly, polymer-based coatings are commonly applied to the exterior surface of the manufactured products. These coatings provide protective layers that seal the surface from corrosive reactants, as well as provide a painted surface that can the aesthetically pleasing.
The composition disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,308 B2 has a matrix functionality and an electrolyte functionality, wherein the electrolyte functionality is provided by a block copolymer or a graft copolymer. The matrix functionality provides an adhesive bond to a substrate, and the electrolyte functionality provides sufficient ionic conductivity to the composition to support a faradic reaction at an interface with an electrically conductive surface in contact with the composition, whereby the adhesive bond is weakened at the interface. The composition may be a phase-separated composition having first regions or substantially matrix functionality and second regions of substantially electrolyte functionality.